Coming Up With Great Dissertation Ideas: Brainstorming Techniques

Dissertations can take a lot of time and effort, but you can do it with the right techniques. When you’re working on such a big project, it can get overwhelming easily. Having the support of friends and family really helps, even if they can’t help with anything but just encourage you to do your best. Having a person to bounce ideas off is a great brainstorming tip you can use.

Here are some more ways you can come up with ideas:

Make a mind map

Use a thesaurus to find synonyms of words

Ask a librarian about related ideas, book recommendations and research methods within your field of study

Talk to your professor about topic ideas

Ask yourself what made you want to study this field in the first place

Look at local and current issues and events

Discuss what topics your friends or classmates are writing about

While brainstorming, eat a healthy snack or go on a walk

Ideas for dissertation writing

Using the above tips, you can easily find and brainstorm ideas for your assignment. A thesis is quite different from writing an essay or a term paper. It needs to be more original, more in depth and of larger scope. Make sure your idea is good enough for a thesis by asking your advisor. You can also find lists of specific topic ideas online.

When you’re doing the brainstorming, try to think from the perspective of the board who will be judging your work. They’ve probably heard so many other similar dissertation presentations and will be looking for something engaging, something that fires up your passions and shows your individuality. That’s the kind of topic you want to choose because it has a higher chance of being approved—as long as you approach the topic appropriately, research it well and present it professionally.

There’s a lot more to writing a dissertation than just brainstorming your topic, but it is a great starting place to choose. You have to have your topic ideas set in stone before doing the bulk of the writing and finding source materials or you’ll be wasting your time. You don’t want to change topics after doing a lot of work and then have to delete everything you’ve done so far. It’s also a good practice to look at how much tiem you have left and plan your work periods.